


The Time of My Life

by HalbarryTrashcan



Series: Halbarry One-Shots [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Hal, Drunk Barry Allen, Drunk! Barry, Fluff, Hangover, I love them so much, M/M, My First Fanfic, Sort-of Domestic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 22:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20397514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HalbarryTrashcan/pseuds/HalbarryTrashcan
Summary: Barry had no idea what he should have been expecting from his twenty-ninth birthday party, but he really couldn't have expected the morning after.Alternate Summary: Hal gets Barry WASTED.





	The Time of My Life

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文-普通话 國語 available: [生命中的美好时光](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21544858) by [Cassie_ERmtb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassie_ERmtb/pseuds/Cassie_ERmtb)

> Hello everyone! So you may have seen me commenting around on everyone's posts recently; I'm new to this whole world and this incredible universe, but it makes me so joy-filled that I had to give it a shot! This is my first fic, so I'm excited to see where my writing goes from here. I woke up with an incredible hangover after my birthday last Sunday and - boom - this little one-shot was born. I hope you all have as much fun reading it as I had writing it. Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
> 
> -HB

A groan escaped Barry’s lips when his eyelids resisted opening.

“Shit,” he hissed in pain.

The light was so disorienting to the speedster that he had to shut his eyes and try opening them again four times, to no avail. One who normally welcomes the bright, rejuvenating light of the morning sun was experiencing the side effects of a standard Sunday morning hangover after a long Saturday night.

_Ah,_ _the wonders of alcohol_.

How the hell Hal had managed to get Barry drunk for his twenty-ninth birthday was beyond any scientific explanation that he could come up with. The speedster had a fast metabolism; the fastest metabolism on Earth, actually, and alcohol had not yet once been able to affect him since the day he woke up from his coma after the accident. He wasn’t sure what Hal did to finally break science, but he was beginning to wonder if the lantern’s powers also included the ability to cause mischief wherever he went.

Barry rolled over and groaned again, his stomach churning at even the smallest movement. People had always asked him if he missed having the ability to get drunk, but he was never really into alcohol during his time before super-metabolism. He was beginning to understand why. Barry decided he was going to have to punch Hal the next time he saw him – he was never getting drunk again.

Yet, even though the alcohol was out of his system, the thought of Hal Jordan warmed Barry in a way that he couldn’t quite comprehend. Barry was no stranger to having feelings for other men – he’d had them all of his life. He was pretty sure that every guy has at least thought about another man like that at least once, even if it was fleeting. And, yeah okay, his best friend was hot. But his best friend also flies around in skin-tight spandex with knee-high boots, all the while making jokes about Barry’s ass in his uniform.

Hal was a flirt with everyone though, leaving no stone unturned when it came to – borderline crude – remarks about his teammates’ appearances. Still, Barry couldn’t quite shake the buzz that he felt in his heart, causing his molecules to vibrate a little faster every time the lantern was near him.

He, however, had no idea if Hal even liked guys, despite Oliver’s remark that “Hal would fuck anything with a hole,’ which really concerned Barry for reasons he would never admit to anyone for as long as he lived. The speedster also refused to ruin his friendship with Hal; they had become best friends when they both first joined the league over seven years ago, and there was no way he was going to ruin that now.

He sighed and tried to find a comfortable position, wincing every time he felt his head throb. He kept his eyes closed as he tried to remember the conundrum of how Harold Jordan was able to even get him drunk in the first place, let alone drunk enough to have him this incredibly hungover.

**__________________________________**

When Barry slowed his superspeed down to arrive at the address he was given in a very cryptic – albeit incredibly charming – text message from Hal, he was confused. Hal’s text sent him all the way to Coast City, and while Barry knew that path very well by this point, he had no idea what this dustbowl of a bar he was standing outside of had to do with his birthday.

“What the hell,” he muttered under his breath as he opened the door into the mustiest, rinky-dink bar he had ever laid eyes on.

When the speedster entered the bar, he cursed every single one of Harold Jordan’s ancestors. The grating of Willie Nelson and stench of expired beer hit his ears and nose in one fell swoop, leaving his eyesight as the only sense he had left to combat the holy terror that he had walked into. Barry had fought off villains twenty times his size, traveled through space and time, and yet on this day he discovered an evil worse than any of them.

A country bar.

How the hell a country bar even existed in Coast City was beyond him, but here he was. Barry was surrounded by cowboy hats, boots, plaid flannel shirts, and belt buckles of all kind. The only reason he didn’t look so out of place was that he had decided at the last minute to change from his work clothes into more casual jeans and a nice button up. Boy, was he glad that he did.

As Barry scanned the bar for any semblance of normalcy he might have for the night, his eyes landed on the only reason he had come to this godforsaken place.

_Hal_.

The brunette was leaning over the counter, talking to the bartender who appeared as if she was imitating Dolly Parton in her younger years, only Lou – as her nametag read – was a tad too old and too wide to fit the description. Barry was going to kill him. He was actually going to kill him.

Just about the time that Barry reached Hal, he was turned around with such force that there was really only one person on Earth that it could be.

“Barry! I’m so glad you came! Hal said line dancing was your favorite! Happy birthday bud,” Clark Kent sing-songed as he pulled Barry into a tight hug.

“Oh did he?” he said through gritted teeth, “that’s so. Polite of him. Thank you for the birthday wish though, Clark. I appreciate it.” Barry finished with a smile.

He really did mean it; Clark might be the nicest person to ever walk this plane of existence, and he was always a welcome face. The fact that Clark was here caused a horrible thought in Barry’s mind, however. He was almost too afraid to ask.

“Clark... Who else is here?”

“Oh! Hal – obviously – Diana, Oliver, Dinah, Zatanna, and Arthur. J’onn and Bruce are on Watchtower monitor duty tonight, but I’m sure they would have been here if they could,” Clark finished sympathetically.

That bastard. Hal had invited half the league! Barry was so caught up in planning how many different ways he could murder the lantern and then go back in time to do the next one on his list that he almost missed the look that Clark gave him.

“Hal was really excited about planning your birthday party, Barry,” Clark spoke in a soft tone, still being able to project over the two-stepping going on around them. “He found out that you spent last year alone after you and Iris split and I- well honestly, I’ve never seen him more insistent on anything in his entire life. And he is the most stubborn person I know.”

All of the thoughts that Barry was having immediately slipped down the drain, as liquid as Plastic Man. Hal was a dick, but Hal was his best friend. He could be stubborn and an ass, but he put more time and care in this party for Barry than the speedster had realized. His molecules started vibrating at that rate that Barry had started to call “Hal frequency” and before he knew it, he had decided he was going to try and enjoy this party as best that he could.

“That’s good to know. Thanks, Clark, I think I’ll go head his way now,” Barry smiled at the gentle giant as he wandered through a crowd of bodies and boots to get to his best friend. Hal looked up as soon as Barry was a few yards away.

“Barry!” Hal beamed and pressed his body flush up to Barry in a giant hug. Barry just laughed and hugged him back. He didn’t get too many of these. “I’ll need to tell Ollie that I won our bet. I was just telling Lou here that you’ll be late to your own funeral. Ollie said that you wouldn’t be late for your birthday party, but it looks like he has to buy me ten rounds,” the brunette said with a smug look like he had just won the lottery. Barry’s vibrations immediately slowed out of concern.

“Hal, you’ll die if you take ten shots in a row like that,” the blond said with a frown.

Hal pulled Barry close and whispered with a cheeky grin, “Oh, they’re not for me birthday boy.” The whisper caused a shiver to travel throughout Barry’s entire body and – oh, there’s the Hal frequency again.

“Oh, come on, you know that alcohol has no effect on me,” the speedster replied.

“Please, Bear?” Hal pouted, “Think of it as an experiment! I wanna see how many shots it takes you to sing the cheesiest, eighties duet I can find on the Karaoke machine absolutely hammered with me.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Barry,” the brunette insisted, “ever since the accident you haven’t been able to drink and let loose like the rest of us. You haven’t taken a break to – and all puns intended – slow down.” He sighed, “Look Bear, I just really wanted you to have a good time. I know you haven’t had a good birthday since you were a kid and I just- I thought that this might be the first good one you can get. You just need a good night for fuck’s sake, you know? Besides, you’d be spending it with people who really care about you. And me,” he grinned through the finish.

Damn it. Hal could play him like a violin when he wanted to, but he was right. Barry hadn’t had a good birthday since God knows when. And there was no better place to be than with Hal.

His sigh finally broke into a grin, “Alright. Fine, but if this somehow does work, there’s still no way in hell that you can get me to sing karaoke with you.”

The lantern let out a whoop. “We’ll see about that,” he flashed a challenging look Barry’s way, and then caught himself as he was about to turn. “Oh yeah, one more thing. You can’t use your powers to chug through them.”

Barry let out a giant groan. “But the taste, Hal! If I’m going to have to drink ten times the alcohol, it’s going to taste ten times as bad.”

Hal smirked, “Well you also can’t let everyone in the bar know that you’re the _Flash_, now can you? Besides, Ollie’s rich. He can pay for ten times the alcohol.” And with that, he was gone.

It is going to taste horrible, but Barry is just glad that it at least is going to make Hal happy. It can’t physically work anyway, so he has nothing to worry about.

**__________________________________**

Barry was wrong. Barry was so, very wrong. He didn’t know how it happened, and he hadn’t been drunk in six years, so it hit him like a tsunami.

Before he knew it, he was line dancing in between Hal and Clark while Zatanna and Dinah were watching from the sideline, cheering them all on. He had no idea where Diana, Arthur, and Oliver were, but he assumed they were somewhere down the line stomping around and zigzagging around all sorts of partners.

_Blink._

It felt like he only closed his eyes for a second, but all of a sudden Barry now found himself on the stage with a microphone in his hand next to Hal, and the instrumental track for “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from _Dirty Dancing _playing.

Shit. Damn it, how did Hal actually convince him to do this.

“Hal, I can’t do this,” the blond stuttered out.

“Sure you can, you already are!” he laughed in response.

“No, no-no-no,” Barry begin swaying a little and the world began to get fuzzy again.

“Shit!” Hal rushed to grab him before he fell. “You alright, Bear?” he said with concern in his eyes as he kept him from tumbling over. Their proximity made Barry flush, but he didn’t shy away from the closeness.

“Yeah,” he almost giggled out, “it’s just been awhile.”

Suddenly, the background vocals started up and he two and half minutes later he was belting out the last notes of the cheesy song with Hal, both of them clinging onto each other in a drunken mess.

“C’mon, jump Barry. I’ll catch you, we can do the lift,” Hal only slurred a few of his words.

Barry laughed, “I may be drunk, Harold, but I’m not an idiot. I am not jumping into your arms on a stage in front of a crowd of hillbillies.” The other man smirked.

“You had no problem letting me catch you three minutes ago,” he shot out cockily. Barry blushed profusely in that shade of red that only Hal could manage to get out of his cheeks while Hal let out a roar of a laughter. “I’m just teasin’ you, Bear. I’ll catch you anytime you need me to.”

Barry hummed in response.

_Blink._

He opened his eyes again and he was two-stepping with Dinah, laughing and spinning her around.

“Where did you learn how to two-step, twinkletoes?” Dinah laughed when Barry did a little jig before he spun her.

“It was one of my mom’s favorite things to do. She taught me when I was little,” Barry smiled when he thought of his mom. He missed her every day, but he thinks she would be proud of what he’s become. He hopes she would at least.

As if reading his mind, Dinah put a hand on his cheek. “She would be so proud of you Barry,” she said to him softly. “In fact, wherever she is, I’m sure she’s proud of you right this very moment for being such a good swing partner,” she finished by taking his arm and pretzeling back through it.

It was at that moment that Barry realized how lucky Oliver Queen was that Dinah Lance put up with his shit and for some reason, Drunk Barry thought that was acceptable to say out loud.

“Y’know, Dinah, Oliver is really fu-fucking lucky to have you because you’re just so incredible and he does and says so much stupid shit all the time and you’re just so great and have I said you’re like my favorite league member, of course, other than Hal but he says and does a lot of stupid shit too and I just wish he would stop it and look at me sometimes, you know?” Barry blurted out in a quick, jumbled mess.

Dinah looked at him with a blank expression and Barry recoiled in horror at what he had just said.

“Oh my God, Dinah, I’m so sorry, Ollie is a lovely guy and,” he was cut off by Dinah’s beautiful, melodious laughter and she gave him a hug that felt like it rivaled Clark’s in strength.

“Barry, sweetheart you don’t have to apologize. I know Ollie’s a headass most of the time. It’s what love does to you,” she continued by stroking the back of Barry’s head, “he may be a man-child, but it makes those real moments something special. The ones when I wake up and he’s made breakfast or when he’s filled my car with gas when I expected it to be on E. You and Hal will get there, Barry. He loves you a lot. He’s just an asshole,” she smiled at him.

Barry barely had time to process what she had just said “Wait a minute, Dinah, what did you just say?”

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear!” She said quickly dodging Barry’s question with a smirk. Barry turned around and Hal was standing there, wearing a belt buckle that he had won earlier in a bet with a particularly burly looking cowman that Barry had been a tad certain was a villain in disguise.

“Oh? You rang?” Hal shot back with a playful grin.

“No, Harold, I never ring for you. Happy birthday, Barry. Don’t let any of him rub off on you, please,” Dinah winked at him. She gave him a kiss on the cheek, before turning to leave and collect a drunk Oliver that was stretched over a barstool.

Hal’s confident smile faltered a little and he let out a shaky breath, and only Barry could have caught it; but before he could react, Hal offered out his hand for Barry to take. “Can I have this dance?”

Barry stood frozen. There were so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to throw his arms around him right here in front of every single one of these hillbillies and never let him go. He wanted to dance all night and he didn’t care that Waylon Jennings was what they were dancing to. Maybe he was being a little bit dramatic, but maybe it was the forty-three shots that Hal had made him sneak so that way Lou didn’t cut him off at the bar for fear of alcohol poisoning.

Speaking of the alcohol, Barry wondered how that was going. He looked up and Hal was waiting with his hand out, fidgeting back and forth. Oh yeah, Barry smiled.

Hal.

“Hal, I.” Barry stopped and suddenly turned very pale, causing the lantern concern.

“Bear? Are you okay?” he asked worriedly.

“Hal, I’m gonna throw up.”

**__________________________________**

Barry woke up with a start, immediately regretting that action. His stomach churned and he began reaching for a bucket he didn’t know he had that was placed strategically next to his bed. He dry heaved into the green bucket for a few moments until the spasming in his stomach subsided.

After his head cleared slightly, he realized the sound that woke him up was that of his alarm clock. Barry slowly reached out his arm and punched it once or twice until it finally shut off. That was strange, he thought as he yawned. He didn’t remember setting his alarm clock.

In fact, he didn’t remember coming home. Barry began trying to wrap his mind around his thoughts, getting overwhelmed. He remembered waking up earlier in the morning, but he didn’t remember how he got here. The last thing that he remembers was Hal asking him to dance and then – oh. Oh God, Barry prayed that he didn’t throw up on Hal. They’d been in a lot of tricky situations together, but just the thought of throwing up on Hal almost sent Barry’s stomach back into spasms. Not to mention that he woke up hungover on his birthday for the first time in: wait. And then he realized the other bad news.

Today was his actual birthday, which meant the Garricks were coming over for lunch.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Jay and Joan were coming over for a birthday lunch at noon, and according to the alarm that an unidentified person, thing, entity had set that was in an hour. He was in no shape for a birthday lunch. He still needed to clean his house, take a shower, deal with the unprecedented hangover, and get groceries for Joan to make lunch – because according to Joan, even if he offered his house, it was still his birthday and he would not be making his own birthday lunch.

Barry raced out of bed, despite every muscle in his body giving him incredible protest. He could shower last, that would be the easiest thing to do after cleaning the house. He made a mental checklist and decided that he would check the cabinets first to see what he needed to get, go grab the groceries, come back and clean the house, and then take a shower.

He would just have to live with the hangover.

He sighed and walked down the stairs, letting himself warm up before he tried to run all the way to the grocery store. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he was more disoriented than he had been when he had woken up. He blinked three times and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing anything, but he wasn’t. His entire living room was spotless.

Everything was in its place. Even the exact way that Barry arranged all his couch pillows was replicated perfectly. Maybe he cleaned up before he left last night so he didn’t have to do it this morning?

He went into the kitchen to discover the same thing had taken place there; no, he absolutely didn’t clean his house last night, so that means someone had to have done it that wasn’t him. Barry was – honestly, startled – that a stranger had broken into his home just to clean it, but what was even more peculiar was that whomever did it cleaned the kitchen with Barry’s favorite cleaning solution that smelled of lavender and vanilla. Before he had time to even make a move, however, his front door opened.

“Hey! You’re early. I’m sorry I’m a mess this morning. I accidentally slept a little late and I still need to go get groceries. I went out with Hal and a bunch of friends last night and we got a little carried away with the karaoke. If you want to go with me, you can. Just give me fifteen seconds to,” Barry stopped his sentence where it was when he turned around to see Hal Jordan standing in his front doorway, arms filled with brown paper bags from the grocery store.

“Hal?” Barry asked, floored.

“I didn’t know what you needed, so I just got a little bit of everything,” he responded with a sheepish smile.

He suddenly understood exactly what Dinah had meant the night before. Barry laughed because he had no idea what else to do. “It was you who cleaned my house, wasn’t it? How did you know I like lavender and vanilla?” Hal, honest to God, blushed, and Barry had never felt such a sense of accomplishment before in his entire life.

“I just know it’s the one you always keep in the cabinet below the sink,” he tried to answer Barry as matter-of-factly as he could to cover up his embarrassment. “Hey, Bear, can you grab a few of these sacks? I’m about to drop the eggs.” Barry zoomed over and within a few seconds all of the groceries were put away, leaving them standing in Barry’s kitchen alone.

He looked at the lantern with a soft smile. “Thank you for cleaning my house, Hal. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know,” he shrugged. “I just, wanted to. I felt like it was the least I could do after I ruined your twenty-ninth birthday.” Hal looked at the ground and the sight broke Barry’s heart. Barry went over and wrapped his arms around Hal’s shoulders.

“Hal you didn’t ruin it,” he spoke quietly, but with intensity. The brunette didn’t look up at him, so Barry grabbed his chin and forced Hal to meet his gaze. “That was my favorite birthday party I’ve ever had. I had so much more fun than I ever thought I was going to. I learned how to line dance, I met some really cool people, and I got to hang out with everyone from the league in a setting where we aren’t all in mortal danger.” Hal chuckled at that. “And also, um. I got to spend it with you, and that meant a lot to me,”

“It meant a lot to me that you gave it a shot, Bear.” Hal finally cracked a smile at him.

The two of them were so close that Barry could hear the sound of Hal’s heartbeat quickening. He thought that the lantern was going to say something, but then he clamped his mouth shut tight, pressed in a firm line. The sound of the blood rushing through their bodies to compensate for the speeding of their hearts was almost deafening. He just couldn’t take it.

“I love you Hal,” Barry blurted out before he could stop himself.

Hal stood there for a while staring back at him, seemingly contemplating something until his eyes finally opened up as if he were connecting the dots.

“Really?” Hal asked softly. Barry was about to speak, but Hal interrupted him by continuing through a self-deprecating tirade, “Barry, are you sure? You know how much of an assbag I am, and you know my history with hurting people who get close to me.” His brow furrowed, “and I don’t want to do that to you because I care about you so much more than I care about anyone else.”

“Hal- “

“Damn it, I don’t think I’ve ever cared about anyone the way that I care about you Barry, and you deserve so much more than me, Bear, geez, I- I don’t know even know what to say to you to describe how good you are and how much you deserve.”

“Hal- “

“And I’m always off-world for who knows how long and I don’t want to put you through that. God, what would happen to you if something happened while I’m fighting someone in space, and I can’t get back here fast enough? What happens if I go out on a mission and I only think it’s been four days and there was a freak accident with my ring’s time system and it’s been four years or- “

“_Harold Jordan_.”

Hal stopped his rambling, caught off guard by his full name. He looked at his shoes for a short moment before he forced himself to look back up at the blond.

“Barry, there’s just so many things that would need to be worked out. I just – you’re my first priority. I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered with such sincerity that it broke Barry’s heart.

“Hal, those are things that we can worry about when they happen. Until then,” Barry shuddered, “I have waited so long for this, and I can’t help but think that we have to at least give it a try,” he finished, almost pleading. He needed Hal to know how much he wanted this, wanted him.

“Bear, I-,” he let out a shaky breath. “Are you sure?” he let out in a delicate whisper, his eyes widening.

Barry nodded, and this time Hal’s whole body lit up like a kid in a candy store.

It happened so quickly, Barry really couldn’t tell you who kissed who, but he and Hal were kissing, and it was everything he had ever dreamed it would be. It’s like Hal’s lips were lighting a volcano inside him that he didn’t know had been dormant his whole life. And he wanted more. They wrapped their arms around each other and tangled into a passionate embrace. Just as Barry started to deepen the kiss, Hal pulled his face back all of a sudden and chuckled.

“What is it?” Barry asked, breathlessly.

“You shocked me,” Hal grinned.

“Why?” the blond asked confused, and Hal shook his head.

“No, I mean you literally shocked me when you kissed me that last time,” the lantern responded, and put his head on Barry’s shoulder, still not letting him go.

“Oh,” Barry blushed, “Jay told me that happened to him when he kissed Joan for the first time.”

Hal grinned. “I guess that’s a good sign, then.”

Barry laughed and kissed Hal’s forehead, “I guess it is then. Speaking of Jay and Joan, we have twenty minutes until they’re supposed to get here. And as much as I’d like to keep doing this,” Barry gestured towards the two of them with the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Hal, “I need to look at least presentable. Will you get the noodles out and start a pot of water to boil while I go get a shower?”

“Does this mean I can stay for lunch?” Hal beamed.

“You can stay as long as you want to,” Barry kissed him again.

The speedster started up the stairs towards his bedroom but stopped halfway up the stairs. “Hal, how did you get me home last night?” Hal’s eyes grew wide.

“I, um, I flew us here.”

Barry’s jaw dropped. “Harold Jordan. You flew us here after you had been drinking? Something horrible could have happened!”

Hal raised his hands in defense. “What was I supposed to do? You were sick and I had to get you home. It was hard enough getting you sitting upright in your bed while I tried to sleep on the couch in your house, I would have hated to try to do that in the bar,” He pleaded with his big hazel eyes, and Barry had no choice but to give in.

“You slept on the couch all night?” Barry asked. Hal nodded. “Well… you don’t have to sleep on the couch tonight,” Barry said with a small smile and resumed his climb back up the stairs.

“Hey, Bear?”

Barry turned his head and met Hal’s eyes. “Yeah?” Hal was blushing, and the sight melted all of Barry’s incessant worrying away in an instant.

“I love you too,” he finished with a soft smile.

Barry beamed back at him and rushed upstairs to take the fastest shower of his life.

**__________________________________**

Jay and Joan had left about an hour ago, and Barry and Hal were curled up on the couch watching an eighties movie marathon when the title screen for _Dirty Dancing _flashed itself on Barry’s television.

Barry let out another groan.

“I still cannot believe you got me to do that,” he grumbled as he nestled into Hal’s chest. He felt the brunette’s chest move up and down in a soft chuckle. Barry heard the movie mute and then felt his world move underneath him when Hal forced him to move by slowly standing up. Barry pouted, but he stopped when he looked up to see Hal smiling at him with his phone in his hand.

“What is it?” the speedster asked, intrigued. It was then that he heard the soft country music begin to play.

Hal held out a firm hand, “We never got to finish our dance.”

The gentle act sent the speedster's molecules into a frenzy that he had never felt before. Barry took his hand, and they danced long after the movie had finished.


End file.
